America Takes Over

When the United States bought the failed French effort and resumed work in 1904, it made the decision de Lesseps never would: abandon the sea-level dream and build a lock-and-dam canal instead.

The plan was audacious. Engineers dammed the Chagres River to create Gatun Lake, a vast artificial lake that ships would cross high above sea level. The same river that had drowned the French project was turned into the canal's greatest asset. Locks would lift vessels up to the lake on one side and lower them back down on the other.